[5 Minutes Earlier]

Jack, Mary, Patrick, and James nervously trailed behind Lucius. They had set out five minutes after him, moving along the agreed-upon route. Mary held James's hand tightly, unable to keep herself from glancing toward Jack every few minutes. The sight of the young man, armed with a heavy sledgehammer and a magical shield, helped calm the frightened mother's nerves. She looked up at her husband, Patrick, who was walking beside her, practicing his inscriptions in his journal. Mary stifled a sigh of exasperation that tried to escape her lips. Patrick's inscriptions were a valuable asset that would help the group survive; she knew that, but it didn’t help her feel any safer right now.

The group walked along the route without speaking, trying to move unnoticed, and avoid attracting any danger. Regardless of their efforts, danger would soon find them.

"Wait..." Whispered Jack, cupping his hand behind his ear. He heard the sound of a bestial roar, it was coming from Lucius’ direction. One thing the companions had recently discovered was that adding attribute points, either to strength or vitality, would also boost perception. Both attributes empowered the body, and with that power came enhanced senses. Allowing Jack to hear what the others could not.

"What is it, Is something wrong?" Patrick lifted his eyes from his journal, glancing around warily, while Mary pulled James closer to her. The group was standing in the center of a four-way intersection, abandoned cars littering the road around them. The nearest building was at least 30 yards away, they were quite exposed at the moment.

"I think Lucius might have run into trouble, but I can't be sure," Jack said, straining his neck as he angled his ear toward the sound. "What!" With a startled expression the young man spun around, facing the direction the group had just come from and raising his weapon and shield in front of him. "There's something there!" Jack's focus had allowed him to pick up an entirely different sound—a rapid skittering of movement right behind them.

The companions each turned to face the direction of the new threat, just in time to witness the arrival of the unexpected visitors. A half-dozen creatures climbed over and around the scattered cars from nearly all directions. It was an ambush. Six childlike humanoid creatures, each riding atop a pink-and-white spider the size of a large dog. The humanoid creatures were hairless with dark green skin, and comically large elf-like ears on the sides of their faces. They wore clothes that would not have been out of place in a primitive human tribe, with loincloths covering their genitals and little else. Each carried what appeared to be a stone-tipped spear, except for one—the leader of the group—who wore a pelt from something resembling a wolf, the head of the slain creature resting atop his own head like a hood.

"Goblins!" James shouted with a bit too much excitement, and not enough fear, in his voice.

It was too much of a coincidence, the creatures attacked them the moment Lucius ran into trouble up ahead. No, they were being hunted, and the goblins must have decided that this was the perfect opportunity to strike.

Jack tried to step between the goblins and his companions, but the mounted creatures were much faster, quickly skittering around him and encircling the group. He wouldn’t be able to protect everyone at once. "Stay together and protect yourselves!" Jack’s mind raced as he tried to think of a plan to resolve the situation.

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The first to strike was the goblin leader. Pulling a stone axe from his back and hurling it at Jack’s face with surprising force. Jack lifted his shield and swatted the projectile away. When he felt the force reverberate down his arm, a grim expression spread across his face. If that stone axe had hit him, he’d be incapacitated—if not dead. Jack guessed the goblin leader's strength was close to his own, or perhaps the creature had a skill that empowered his throw.

Even though his attack was blocked, a wide smile spread across the goblin leader’s face, his goal achieved—distracting the strong one so his tribe could do the rest.

Mary and Patrick stood back-to-back, with James between them, holding their shields and spears. The mounted goblins encircled them, feinting attacks to catch them off guard. It didn’t take long before they succeeded. One of the goblin riders darted in close, pretending to strike at Mary, and when she hid behind her shield, the creature grabbed her spear and wrenched it out of her hands. Mary collapsed to her hands and knees from the strength of the pull, and James immediately rushed up to try to save his mother.

"Help!" the young boy screamed. The moment James was unprotected one of the goblin riders threw a primitive rope over him, and quickly began to drag him away.

Jack knew he needed to act now if he wanted to prevent the worst-case scenario. He had an idea that might not work, but he was out of options. He turned away from the creature in front of him and dashed toward his companions. Just as he expected, the goblin leader raced around him to block his way. The creature had to come within a few paces of Jack to do so, holding out its spear to force him to defend. The creature was surprised when Jack didn’t yield. As the goblin leader’s spear was about to reach him, Jack held up his shield and activated its unique ability, Mind Shock. A ripple of telekinetic power blasted out from the shield, hitting the goblin leader and three of his closest subordinates. The leader’s face went into a grimace as he lost control of his body, his arms weakly drooping to his sides. Jack never stopped moving, charging directly at the leader. He knocked the leader's weakly held spear aside with his shield, as he arched back his weapon with all his might before heaving the hammer forward. The weapon barreled down like the fist of god, crashing into the goblin leader’s head. The damage was catastrophic—the hammer caved in the creature’s skull, it's body crumpling to the side, and without missing a beat it continued on its path crushing the large spider beneath.

You have defeated goblin princeps, Level 6.

You have defeated arachnid mons, Level 3.

You have reached level 7. You have 3 attribute points available for distribution.

Latent talent detected.

You have unlocked the talent “Heavy Strike”

Heavy Strike—Level 1

Jack never stopped, rushing past the defeated leader and toward the goblin that was dragging James away. Unfortunately the creature had been outside the area of effect of his Mind Shock. When the remaining goblins saw that their leader had been killed they immediately lost their courage, and began to retreat. Mary and Patrick had begun to chase the goblin stealing James as soon as they saw what was happening, but the mounted creatures were much faster than the humans, even while dragging a child behind them.

"No! Please, God!" Mary was frantic; this was the nightmare scenario she had never wanted to face. Jack rushed past Mary and Patrick, his attributes high enough to keep pace with the fleeing goblins, but he couldn’t gain on them. He considered throwing his hammer, but he might hit James. When he saw the other goblins regrouping to help pull James away, he knew he had no chance of catching them.

The three adults stood in stunned silence as they watched the goblin riders climb up the side of a building, pulling the struggling James with them, and disappearing from sight.